Dragon of Eriden - The Complete Collection
Page 103
Staring at him with clear green orbs, her lips parted in awe. “That’s why I’m different, isn’t it? I’m not really a dragon, any more than I’m a mortal of the rim.”
“You are whatever you choose to be,” he whispered. “You may take any form you wish, as easily as I do.”
“And how do I choose?” she sighed, more tears trailing her cheeks. “With the world laid before me…” she sobbed. “How can one life I would live be greater than another?”
“Think of the happiest you, the one that you always want to be. That is the life that is yours.”
Pursing her lips, she stared at her hands, occasionally flicking the gaze to see that he studied her intently. “I have sent Rey to his home. I could join him there.”
“Yes.”
“And I have given Lamwen cause to rule the land and lead Eriden in new hope,” she gushed between breaths.
“Yes,” he agreed again with a firm nod.
“But I’m not ready to settle with either of them,” she confessed. “There is so much more to see and do now that I know of my kind.” Hesitating, she cut her eyes up at him and dared, “Our kind.”
Opening her palm, she offered him her hand, her lip trembling as she waited. His digits warm when they touched her, he curled his fingers with hers. “Neither of us will be alone on this journey,” he agreed, leaning patiently closer to her.
Licking her lips, she recalled the kisses she had shared with Lamwen and all the many more that had belonged to Rey. “I’m the destroyer,” she confessed. “I am a lover of dragons and men.”
“My silly girl,” he replied, still waiting for her to choose. “You have ended the separation between Eriden and the Rim. The world has been made whole once again. If you insist upon the fairy tale, then the creator and the destroyer are one.”
“I am happy for this, Sevoassi,” she breathed. “But I am curious. Which name will you now call me?”
“The name you were born to carry. One that truly suits you, I should think. For a dragon’s heart beats within your chest, Kaliwyn, my dragon of Eriden.”
Her lungs tight, adrenaline coursed through her veins. “Will we be watchers, like the gnomes?”
“I doubt it would be so,” he sighed. “I refused to stand on the side. It was how I earned my exile, as you have earned yours.”
“Why didn’t they destroy me?” she whispered curiously. “They are such powerful creatures, I’m sure that they could have.”
“Yes, but it is not in their nature to interfere, my sweet dragoness,” he explained. “Banishing you was sentence enough to rid you from their concern. Imagine their surprise to learn the path you chose in becoming a hatchling and living as Ziradon’s heir.”
“But you weren’t surprised. You knew I would find my way home,” she concluded. “Even hundreds of years ago, you knew.”
“Oh,” he gasped, as if a distant thought had suddenly been thrust into the light. “I made my prophecy at the time you were banished. Do you not remember your crime?”
“I honestly don’t remember anything except small bits of my time as Kaliwyn and the life I have lived as Amicia. Any such past as you speak of is forgotten, and the rest I have had to work out from the facts as they have unfolded. But your final prophecy as the oracle was said to be from the great war and at least two hundred years old,” she accused with a small pout forming on her lips. “How could it have been so long ago and yet it come true?”
“It wasn’t long, not in the life of a gnome. Kaliwyn, we are the ossci.”
His words fell flat across the room, the pop and hiss of the fire the only sound to follow for several minutes. Her thoughts churning, Ami searched through her memories, every instance that she had seen in the marsh and in the presence of the gnomes. The three she had met and held so dear were born after her exile, but little else could be ascertained.
“Why did they punish me?” she asked at last, unable to discern the reason for herself.
“You destroyed Galiodien. He instigated the great war and took the lives of Ziradon’s mate and sons. When you discovered his treachery, you could no longer resign yourself to simply hide and watch, recording the events as they unfolded. Did you not recognize your own hand?”
“My own hand,” she whispered. “You are talking about the tomes in the libraries.”
“Yes, my love,” he replied gently. “You loved Ziradon so much you recorded every detail of his life, right up to the point they banished you. Someone else took over his story and left it there for you to discover as of late. You bore your exile until you could stand it no more, and then you chose to be reincarnated as his final offspring.”
Swallowing, his lips grew thin in a forced smile before he continued.
“But obviously, choosing such a path cost you all that you knew of your previous existence. The prophecy wasn’t a prophecy at all. I simply stated what I saw to be true. Your pure heart, a lover of dragon and man, the highest and lowest among us. It never sat well with you that they had banished the mortals to the rim, even if you failed at the time to act. You abhorred the deeds that had been done. The wrongs that were inflicted. I knew when they decided not to destroy you that it was only a matter of time before you would bring the separation of our worlds to its rightful end.”
A flicker of recognition in her green eyes, she gasped, “You prevented the mortals from being destroyed. It was through your influence that they were spared and moved to the rim to begin with. That’s when you were banished from the marsh.”
“Yes.”
“But I wasn’t strong enough then,” she croaked, tears welling in her eyes.
Swallowing, he nodded.
“And you have waited for me all this time.”
“And now you know the truth,” he managed in a less than masculine voice. “You have at last returned to me,” he grinned, “and you have chosen me.”
Smiling, she leaned towards him, her supple lips finding his. Searching, yearning, her hand resting against his cheek, she enjoyed the taste of him. Breaking the connection, she placed her forehead against his. “I understand.”
Raising his arm, he pressed his fleshy palm against the back of hers, enjoying the warmth of her touch. “Then you know we have centuries ahead of us,” he whispered. “And we have each other’s company in which to spend them.”
“Aye,” she giggled, “in the form of any creature we want to be.” The thought drew her mind to the dragon skeleton she had spied in Meena’s golden orb while they hid in the Crimson Caves. She had thought they were a trick, when she had doubted the intentions of Yaodus. Her thoughtful mood returning, she shrugged. “I saw your bones, or at least I believed that they were. Why did you pretend to be dead?”
“I never pretended to be dead,” he chuckled. “I took my leave of the world, secluding myself more fully, and they assumed my absence heralded my passing. I’m afraid the body you found was yours, left behind when you fused yourself with the egg of a dragon. I have visited the cave and stood by them often in my grief,” he confessed.
“Mine,” she gasped, the thought of such a thing giving her a shudder. “Then how do I still breathe? I doubt stealing a dragon’s life could bring about such a thing.”
“Of that, I have no firm explanation. I only know that some truths cannot be denied, and all have been shocked to find that you were able to take on a new life. You left your bones behind and were born of the flesh to walk the earth in a second life. You were reincarnated as Kaliwyn, almost as if you had planned it all along.”
“Rubbish,” Ami giggled, her eyes bright. “No one could have planned such a twisted tale as this.”
Epilogue
In her ordinary mortal form, Kaliwyn arrived home to their tree-cottage in the northern woods, where she lit the fire and placed a kettle over the flames. Taking a seat at the table, she opened her single tome to a new blank page and began to write. After a few minutes of dipping and scrawling, she laid her pen aside and stood to pace the small space.
If you have discovered my tome, then allow me a short preface to the contents. Herein lies the eventual ends of our journey as we have been scattered across the globe to while our days on separate paths. However, we once walked as a group and lived as a family. We were a collection of souls with a single purpose: to save ourselves and our beloved mother earth from the squabbling of her children in the two realms… the Kingdom of Eriden and those called the Mortals of the Rim.
Her fingers skimming over the words and chapters that followed, she picked out brief passages to relive parts of their adventure, turning the pages that recorded all the events she had recalled and documented within the binding. They were the details of her life from the moment of Arely’s revelation to the night she sat in that very room with Sevoassi and learned the final piece of her truth.
But that was only the beginning, she contemplated with a crooked grin. She and the one they called oracle were destined to become lovers, sharing beliefs and abilities few if any could understand. Their lives together had unfolded slowly as the years passed, and she loved him deeply. Her memories of her previous self had never returned; an unfortunate consequence of her choice to don Kaliwyn’s wings and live the life of a true dragon. Staring at the words of her diary, it was all that she had, but it was enough.
Her eyes flicking around at the flame-kissed walls, she closed the tome and sighed. In the back, she had been adding updates to their adventures, as she visited many of her friends often. Or at least those who have remained in Eriden. Tonight, her thoughts were of Reynard Daye, and she could feel the ache in her chest. The longing to know of the man she had once wed.
Rey had remained with Oldrilin and the Sirens for some months after the battle at Whitefair, but eventually Meena had delivered him to the Rim and he had returned to his childhood home of Domania, or so it had been decided. Kaliwyn had no real knowledge of what had become of him, as she had feared what she would find. She wanted so much for him, but she could not be a part of his future, and that had kept her away.
Leaning back in her chair, she rested her hand on her belly and the movement of the growing form within pressed against her fingers. It had surprised her and Sevoassi both that she had conceived, but they had grown accustomed to the idea of raising their young and future ossci. It would arrive in a few months, and her life would again undergo a drastic change, only this one felt more right than any other she had experienced so far.
A tender smile painting her lips, she could not shake the curiosity that had twisted her gut, the pending arrival perhaps feeding her desire to know. Biting her lip, she flicked her eyes around the room once more, then cut them up at the tree above her as she considered the trip she had previously not dared to take. The orb won’t do. I have to see for myself.
Pushing the chair back, she left all as it was and made the distance in a single leap. She was an old hand at transpositioning these days and could visit anywhere on the earth in the blink of an eye.
Arriving in a sun-drenched village on the isle of Domania, she hid her features and her condition with a clever disguise; one of long dark locks that hung straight to her waist and clear blue eyes that took in the world with a gleam. With her deeply tanned flesh, she wished to spy upon her old friend with no intention of alerting him to her presence. She had visited with the others of their group often, openly sharing when she chose to call, but this was different. Her being recognized would be a disruption for him, or so she firmly believed.
Stepping out from her hidden location, she breathed deeply. Some commotion was currently under way there in his peaceful village, and she was met with a throng of happy islanders swarming around her. Making her way forward, she relaxed into the crowd, confident she would reach her target among them.
“Amicia?” A male voice came from over her shoulder.
Frozen in place, the girl did not turn. Her eyes adjusted to the bright light, she skimmed over people coming and going in the town square. A festival. Brightly colored dresses and decorations adorned the area, and music floated on the air.
“Ami, is that you?” Rey persisted, seizing her arm and forcing her to face him.
Gazing in awe at his full beard and unkempt hair, Ami managed a small grin. “I didn’t think you would know me.”
“How could I not, with a fire as bright as yours?” he teased. Turning as he released her, he welcomed a second woman into their conversation. “Ami, this is my wife, Felice.”
At her introduction, the young woman stared at the girl. Her obvious condition formed a large bump beneath her gown, and her hands traced the mound affectionately as she breathed, “Amicia Spicer. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Glancing at her old friend, Ami could see the flush staining his cheeks and the tips of his ears that peeked out from his long ringlets. “Have you, now?” She grinned knowingly, glad her disguise was complete, and he would not be aware of her own pending arrival.
“Papa! Papa!” A young boy broke between them, calling to his father. “May we have six pence for the show?”
“Stand,” Rey ordered gruffly, using their shoulders to turn his sons as he presented them. “Amicia, these are our boys… Piers and Baldwin.”
Smiling down at the two young men, Ami grinned at their likeness to their father. “Hello,” she stated matter-of-factly as she knelt before them. “And how old are you?”
“I’m seven,” little Piers informed her confidently, then indicated his younger brother. “Bally’s five.” Unimpressed with the strange woman, he returned to his begging, “Please, father? A few coins for the afternoon.”
Retrieving the sum from his pocket, Rey grinned broadly as he offered them to his progeny. “Do not leave the village,” he called as the pair scampered away.
Standing slowly, Ami’s gaze met the dark brown orbs of Rey’s bride. Seeing the smile on Felice’s lips, a twist in her gut unleashed a flood of emotions, ones she hoped remained hidden behind her disguise.
“I’m going for a visit at the parish,” the other woman announced, giving Rey a firm pat on his broad chest. “Invite your friend to supper, like a good host,” she reminded before she turned and floated away, leaving the pair to talk in private.
After she had gone, a strained silence settled over them, and Ami looked around her anxiously. The town square filled with people, happy sounds of celebration rose and fell like a tide. “What’s the occasion?” Amicia finally asked, grateful for the safe subject with which to begin.
“It’s the dragon festival,” Rey informed her. Taking her arm, he led her at a slow pace, guiding her through the crowded space to the edge of the noise and down a quiet path that would take them out of the village. When they were away from the rest, he said more quietly, “They don’t really know why the dragons no longer come. They only know that they do not, and each year we hold a celebration. This is the tenth.”
“Ten years,” Ami quietly agreed, the idea of it stealing her breath. Looking up at him, she stared into his hazel orbs with regret. “I’m sorry it has taken this long for me to come to you.”
“Rubbish,” he laughed. Coming to a full stop, he released her arm and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I doubt you are here to rekindle our flame.” His eyes roaming up and down her slender frame, she had taken great care to hide her identity, and he wondered briefly how many times she had made the trip before he had noticed her. “Do you watch me often?” he asked pointedly.
“Never,” she breathed. “Not so much as a peek with my or
b,” she confessed, a tear spilling over and streaking her cheek. Wiping it away quickly, her chest felt tight. “I’ve been so afraid to see you. I feared what I would find… to discover how you had faired.”
“I have faired well,” he whispered, his hand brushing her shoulder to comfort her. “I’m a happy man, Ami.”
“Tell me about her then,” she replied, meeting his gaze and forcing a smile. “Your wife. Leave nothing out.”
“Well, I stayed at Riran until it had been rebuilt. Leaving Lin was difficult, but in the end, we both knew it was for the best,” he began. Using the hand that rested on her shoulder, he gave her a nudge to follow as he ambled along, putting more distance between them and the others.
Understanding his silent desire to keep their words private, Amicia followed, her grin shifting to genuine. “Yes, I was aware of your aid in their reconstruction. And when Meena delivered you back to the Rim.”
“Yes, at my request. She placed me at Myrth and I caught a ship to here. I arrived at Domania under the firm conviction that I would never see you again and would spend the remainder of my days pining for you while I worked for my brothers on our family farm,” he said with a chuckle.
“But that’s not how it turned out.”
“Oh no. When I arrived, I had only been here a week before I discovered my real reason for coming home. For the first Sunday service, I sat in the church feeling sorry for myself and happened to be two pews back from Felice. During the sermon, she glanced at me over her shoulder, and in an instant, I knew. We grew up together, here in this village, and I had known her my entire life, but it was as if I had seen her for the first time.” His words gentle, he hoped he would not upset his first wife with his confession.
“Oh, Rey,” she reassured, stopping to face him squarely. “You have found love again. I’m so happy for you!” Throwing her arms around him, she pulled him into a firm hug. “I was so scared.”